Picking up from where I left off.....
After the Zorbing, the bus made it to Byron Bay. I had dinner and hung out with bus driver Squirtal, Claire, and Jenny and a few new people across the street from the hostel. The people in charge of the music at the bar/restaurant knew what they were doing. I haven't heard such a good mix of '80's music anywhere but at work, so I have to tip my hat.
The next morning, we headed out to Surf Camp and Alain and Xavier, two Swiss-French guys from earlier in the trip, hopped onto the bus. I was lucky, I had two friends to talk with for the rest of the trip. We made it to Surf Camp a little after lunch, unpacked our stuff, and got to go surfing for the rest of the day! Alain, Xavier, and I had all been surfing before so we got to skip the lesson, get shorter boards (which are harder to stand up on but more maneuverable than longer ones), and get right to surfing. It was a blast. I wore myself out paddling for the three or four hours we were out in the water and took some pretty good falls (I got to be pretty adept at standing up on my board on big, for me, waves, but even better at sticking the nose of my board into the water and getting catapulted into the air) but also learned how to turn, which I thought was pretty cool.
After surfing, we made it back to the dorm rooms, which were steel storage containers outfitted with showers, beds, and sliding glass doors. I took a shower and fell right asleep on my bed. At some point later, it was dinner time, and we made our way to where food was being served. The dinner was the best one I had at a hostel. They served us spagetti and meatballs, steak Diane, cheese and spinach casserole, salad, potatoes, and some chicken, if I remember correctly. Once dinner was over, they organized some "speed dating," where all the girls line up on one side of the table and all of the guys line up on the other and you have one minute to do word association with the person opposite from you using words they gave to the girls. It was OK. I didn't last too much longer and went to bed soon after.
The next morning, we packed up, had our usual Australian breakfast of tea or coffee, Wheatbix, toast, and because we were lucky, some fruit, and because we were really lucky, eggs and baked beans. They even had lemon, orange, lime, and red drink, not juice, but "drink." While juice has natural ingredients, some of which come from actual fruit, the most natural thing in "drink" would have to be the artificial food coloring used to give the liquid an almost Technicolor glow.
Before boarding the bus to Sydney, a seven or eight hour drive away, Alain, Xavier, an English guy, and I threw Gilbert around for a few minutes. Gilbert is Xavier's rugby ball and throwing him around had become our mandatory bus stop activity over the course of the trip.
And then came the drive.
A little side note. Each of the Oz busses was said to have a DVD player specifically for these day-long bus rides. Somehow, on the entire way down the east coast of this continent-country, Alain, Xavier, and I did not see one movie. Once, the DVD player was simply gone. Today's DVD player stopped working the day before because it had shorted out and sent a cascade of sparks down on Squirtal as he worked on fixing the air conditioning. Luckily, the A/C was fixed. My two Swiss-French friends and I enjoyed making up conspiracy theories about why we didn't get to watch any movies on our trip.
One of the stops we made on the way down was at the Uluru Cafe (I think that's what it was called) which had a few restaruants inside of a building shaped like Ayer's Rock. There were signs posted that said the building could be climbed, but that it was closed for the day. Shut down again.
One more side note. All over Australia, the pears were fantastic. I don't know why, whether it was just the right season for them or if they're just better down there, but I only had one "not fantastic" pear the entire time I was there and even then it was merely OK. No chalky, dry pears. No nasty, squishy bruises that go all the way through, either. Just ripe, juicy, tasty pears where-ever I went. MMMMMMmmm.
Finally, Sydney appeared and we made it to our hostels. A bunch of us were going to meet up later so I had enough time to walk over to Lowenbraugh, which was a German restaurant near the Sydney Opera House that I wanted to visit to get a beer glass. The food there was good (salmon, veges, and potatoes with a soft pretzel) but they couldn't sell me a glass because it was after dark and people had been taking their glasses to bars, which was causing problems.
My last night in Sydney was a fun one. I played pool, saw a cover band, and generally had a good time with some friends.
Monday, April 28th was my last day in Australia so I had to make it worthwhile. I picked up some food to take home, walked around a little bit, and made some calls home on a calling card before heading to the airport. After making it through customs, it was just a short wait to get on the plane and head out.
I'll say it again, I love Qantas. The on-demand TV screen on the back of every headrest came in really handy for me this time because I watched mine for about 12 hours and 55 minutes of my 13 hour flight. The other five minutes were spent inhaling the good dinner, snack, and breakfast they served. 3 or 4 movies, a few episodes of The Simpsons, and a few episodes of Family Guy later, and we were back in SFO. Right when we landed, one of the stewardesses started talking about how excited she was to go shopping at Costco, Ross, and Mervyn's and gladly gave local addresses for and info about sales that all of the places had. After working for 13 hours, I don't think I'd have the energy to go shopping for a few hours.
Customs were quick and I caught a shuttle to my grandma's house in no time. I showed her some pictures and told her about some of the parts of my trip before we went to the carvery for lunch, which we had planned about a month before. That was definitely a great way to come back home. Right when we got back to her house, though, not sleeping for 21 hours caught up to me and I passed out until my mom came and picked me up.
Well, that pretty much does it for my trip. I had an amazing time, saw the sights, met cool people, and took way to many pictures, which I'm trying to sort through so I can show them to people.
Hope you enjoyed the blog.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Back Home
Sorry it's been so long since my last post, it's been a crazy few weeks. I'm back home in Davis now and it's good to be back. I missed my family and friends and it's excellent to be able to sleep in my own bed and cook in a kitchen that doesn't make me sign out dishes.
The last week or so in Australia was very mrmorable. As I said in my last blog entry, I was in Noosa for a 3 day, 2 night kayaking trip, which turned out much differently that I expected. I was picked up for the trip at a bus stop along with a couple of English guys and taken to the grocery store so we could buy our food for the trip. We got a clue of how the trip would turn out when the van driver stopped on the way to the camp so he could pick up his laundry.
The scene turned into the beginning of "Deliverance" as we drove off of the main road down a bumpy dirt road lined with thick trees. Our overnight camp was at the far end of a tent city, and we unpacked our things before cooking dinner. A Dutch girl going on our trip was already there and waiting for the information meeting that was happening in a half an hour. The other four members of our trip arrived a few minutes later and after eating, we had our meeting. One of the slightly tipsy staff members laid out a map and used his glass of Jack and Coke to weigh it down. He started off the meeting by explaining that we weren't going to be using kayaks but Canadian canoes. Then, he said, "On your self-guided canoe trip..." Which was interrupted by everyone else's "WHAT?!?" This was the first that anyone had heard that the trip would be self-guided. The staff man acted like this was no big deal and confirmed our shock before continuing on about the path that we would take, repeating everything at least five times, possibly because of his rapidly disappearing drink. After a while, we were done and it was time to get to bed before our early wake up the next morning.
After a quick breakfast, we piled into the van and rode to the lake. I got into a canoe with the two English guys and we headed out. In the two hours it took to get to our first stop, at the other end of the lake, we definitely took in a couple inches of water. It was a good time for a stop and a dumping of the water. Soon enough, we headed out again. The paddling was enjoyable enough and we were making good time up the river. Eventually, we made it to an area of reeds, which turned out to be a dead end and we had to turn around. By this time, the wind had picked up and was in our faces, making it pretty tough to paddle, especially considering that we had already been at it for about four hours. Another two or so hours later, we arrived at our camp, unpacked, put our boats up on the shore, and stopped paddling for the rest of the day. After dinner, we hit the sack at about 8 at night. Lucky for us, because at about 8:15, the rain started.
The next day, the rain had passed and we got back into our boats and paddled upriver. A few km later, we found our stop, which was a small dock that was also the trailhead for a path up to hilltop sanddunes. The trail was white sand and an enjoyable 7 km walk. About 45 minutes later, we made it to the top of the hill and it was an amazing sight. Soft yellow sand dunes all around, way above the sea. We ran around, jumped from the top of dunes, and buried one of the English guys with sand for the next few hours. Eventually, we headed back down to the canoes and leisurely paddled back to our camp for some dinner and hanging out around the table before turning in. Once again, the rain visited after we zipped up our tents.
4:45 am. Very early in the morning to hear my phone's alarm, but that's what we had to do because we had to be back to our initial drop-off point by 9 in the morning and our trip back would be around 4 hours long. Our early wakeup ended up being very worth it. The river was absolute glass, reflecting the trees that lined the bank. Keeping in with the theme of our trip, one of the English guys in my boat and I decided that we would paddle our canoe under the lowhanging branches on the edges of the river. I say one of the English guys because the other was definitely not interested in our daredevil ways. I'm not sure how he felt about our near constant singing, but who wouldn't enjoy hearing "Stand By Me" over and over before hearing just the chorus in repeat? We made it back to the mouth of the river without any problems, which was good because there was really only one way to go.
Out on the lake, the wind picked up a little bit and we had a few close calls with waves, but after a while, we made it to the drop-off point. All of us were exhausted and glad to make it back to the camp. The two English guys and I were stuck at the camp for about an hour until our van left for town. After checking into our hostel and taking quick showers, we headed out to lunch at Subway and enjoyed it immensely. To pass the time in a very energy-free way, a few of us went out to the movies before dinner. The hostel had a dinner deal and we played some pool before I headed to bed.
The next day, I had a few hours to kill before the bus showed up to take me to Byron Bay, so I bought a phone card and made a few calls home. When the bus finally did show up, the bus driver was Squirtal, the cool driver from the beginning of my trip up in Cairns! It was cool to see him again. Our first stop was about an hour away and I got another suprise, when Kaley, Jenny, and Clare got onto the bus. They were also from earlier on the trip and had a bunch of stories to tell. A few hours later, we stopped at a zorbing place. Now, zorbing is an activity where you get inside of a ball that is suspended inside of another ball and roll down a hill. Clare, Jenny, and I signed up for it and it was a blast. It was kind of like going down a hill on a huge slip and slide. I'll have to show you pictures to have it make more sense.
Whoops, I have to get to work so I'll finish this off later.
The last week or so in Australia was very mrmorable. As I said in my last blog entry, I was in Noosa for a 3 day, 2 night kayaking trip, which turned out much differently that I expected. I was picked up for the trip at a bus stop along with a couple of English guys and taken to the grocery store so we could buy our food for the trip. We got a clue of how the trip would turn out when the van driver stopped on the way to the camp so he could pick up his laundry.
The scene turned into the beginning of "Deliverance" as we drove off of the main road down a bumpy dirt road lined with thick trees. Our overnight camp was at the far end of a tent city, and we unpacked our things before cooking dinner. A Dutch girl going on our trip was already there and waiting for the information meeting that was happening in a half an hour. The other four members of our trip arrived a few minutes later and after eating, we had our meeting. One of the slightly tipsy staff members laid out a map and used his glass of Jack and Coke to weigh it down. He started off the meeting by explaining that we weren't going to be using kayaks but Canadian canoes. Then, he said, "On your self-guided canoe trip..." Which was interrupted by everyone else's "WHAT?!?" This was the first that anyone had heard that the trip would be self-guided. The staff man acted like this was no big deal and confirmed our shock before continuing on about the path that we would take, repeating everything at least five times, possibly because of his rapidly disappearing drink. After a while, we were done and it was time to get to bed before our early wake up the next morning.
After a quick breakfast, we piled into the van and rode to the lake. I got into a canoe with the two English guys and we headed out. In the two hours it took to get to our first stop, at the other end of the lake, we definitely took in a couple inches of water. It was a good time for a stop and a dumping of the water. Soon enough, we headed out again. The paddling was enjoyable enough and we were making good time up the river. Eventually, we made it to an area of reeds, which turned out to be a dead end and we had to turn around. By this time, the wind had picked up and was in our faces, making it pretty tough to paddle, especially considering that we had already been at it for about four hours. Another two or so hours later, we arrived at our camp, unpacked, put our boats up on the shore, and stopped paddling for the rest of the day. After dinner, we hit the sack at about 8 at night. Lucky for us, because at about 8:15, the rain started.
The next day, the rain had passed and we got back into our boats and paddled upriver. A few km later, we found our stop, which was a small dock that was also the trailhead for a path up to hilltop sanddunes. The trail was white sand and an enjoyable 7 km walk. About 45 minutes later, we made it to the top of the hill and it was an amazing sight. Soft yellow sand dunes all around, way above the sea. We ran around, jumped from the top of dunes, and buried one of the English guys with sand for the next few hours. Eventually, we headed back down to the canoes and leisurely paddled back to our camp for some dinner and hanging out around the table before turning in. Once again, the rain visited after we zipped up our tents.
4:45 am. Very early in the morning to hear my phone's alarm, but that's what we had to do because we had to be back to our initial drop-off point by 9 in the morning and our trip back would be around 4 hours long. Our early wakeup ended up being very worth it. The river was absolute glass, reflecting the trees that lined the bank. Keeping in with the theme of our trip, one of the English guys in my boat and I decided that we would paddle our canoe under the lowhanging branches on the edges of the river. I say one of the English guys because the other was definitely not interested in our daredevil ways. I'm not sure how he felt about our near constant singing, but who wouldn't enjoy hearing "Stand By Me" over and over before hearing just the chorus in repeat? We made it back to the mouth of the river without any problems, which was good because there was really only one way to go.
Out on the lake, the wind picked up a little bit and we had a few close calls with waves, but after a while, we made it to the drop-off point. All of us were exhausted and glad to make it back to the camp. The two English guys and I were stuck at the camp for about an hour until our van left for town. After checking into our hostel and taking quick showers, we headed out to lunch at Subway and enjoyed it immensely. To pass the time in a very energy-free way, a few of us went out to the movies before dinner. The hostel had a dinner deal and we played some pool before I headed to bed.
The next day, I had a few hours to kill before the bus showed up to take me to Byron Bay, so I bought a phone card and made a few calls home. When the bus finally did show up, the bus driver was Squirtal, the cool driver from the beginning of my trip up in Cairns! It was cool to see him again. Our first stop was about an hour away and I got another suprise, when Kaley, Jenny, and Clare got onto the bus. They were also from earlier on the trip and had a bunch of stories to tell. A few hours later, we stopped at a zorbing place. Now, zorbing is an activity where you get inside of a ball that is suspended inside of another ball and roll down a hill. Clare, Jenny, and I signed up for it and it was a blast. It was kind of like going down a hill on a huge slip and slide. I'll have to show you pictures to have it make more sense.
Whoops, I have to get to work so I'll finish this off later.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Noosa!
Hey everybody, I know it's been a while so this one's gonna be a doozy.
Let's see, since Alice Springs, I've been to the Great Barrier Reef in two different areas, ridden a mechanical bull, learned how to crack a whip and lasso (spelling?), and gone 4x4ing on the world's largest sand island. Oh yeah.
So, to start, I flew from Alice Springs to Cairns where I took a day cruise out to a sand spit and snorkled with the fish and coral and a sea turtle. I had only been snorkling once before so it was still a new experience checking out all the cool wildlife, which was amazingly colorful. The fish were very used to people, so they swam around with me as I looked at them. My favorites were the parrot fish, which were multicolored and ate at the coral the entire time. I could hear them scraping at the coral as they chewed. For whatever reason, that blew my mind. The return trip to land was a sobering experience though, as the sea became rough and I did all I could to keep the buffet lunch down. Many other people were not as lucky.
The enxt day I started my Oz Experience bus trip, which is essentially a Greyhound service with smaller busses and some help with finding accomodation. I've met a lot of cool people on the busses and have had a lot of them on more than one leg of the journey. I just departed from the last of them, a couple of Irish guys that have been hanging out with me for the past week or so. It took me a few days to be able to understand what they were saying and even on our last day together I missed some of what they were saying.
The first day on the bus took me to Magnetic Island, which was the location of the first hostel on my way down the coast. It was OK but not as great as all of the ads I saw for it made it out to be.
Next, I made it to Airlie Beach, the port for the Whitsundays cruise I signed up for. For the next three days, I was on a boat traveling through the Whitsunday Islands. We snorkled in the reefs, stargazed on the boat, and visited Whitsunday Island and Whitehaven Beach, which has to be the setting for every "visit this tropical paradise" commercial ever made. A few times when we were snorkling, one of the ship's crew would throw bread chunks into the water and the fish would just SWARM around us eating it. Once, one of the fish got overzealous and tried to take my ear instead of the bread. That suprised me more than a little bit, but didn't hurt.
After Airlie, we drove to Cattle Station for an overnight stop and I did America proud. I lasted the longest on the mechanical bull ride (41 seconds thank you very much), learned how to crack a whip, lassoed a goat, rode a horse to help muster some sheep, and hit 3 of 5 clay pigeons with a shotgun. It was a pretty fun day.
Next, we made it to Hervey Bay, which is where 4X4 trips to Frasier Island leave. I did a 3 day 2 night trip during which it rained about half of the time, but not in a normal way. It would rain cats and dogs for 5 minutes, then sprinkle for 2, be sunny for 25, and then be absolutely dumping. If it wasn't for the two Irish guys, I would have gone nuts a few times because of other members of our group. I'm glad I went on the trip, though, because the island was scenic, I got to drive the 4X4 a few times through the forest, and we visited Lake McKenzie. Lake McKenzie was easily my favorite part. It is a freshwater lake in the middle of the island that has white sand surrounding it. One of the Irish guys (Patrick O'Gara, how Irish can you get?) and I swam across a good portion of the warm water, which was great. Even saw a few dingos; none of them ate any babies that I saw, but one made off with a guy's sweatshirt.
Now, I'm in Noosa and going on a 3 day kayaking trip that starts in two days before continuing on south. I'm realizing how long I've been gone more and more now and looking forward to seeing everyone when I get back and finding out what you all have been up to. Less than two weeks left. Sounds crazy that I've been gone for two full months already.
Hope everybody's doing well and I'll see you soon.
Andy
Let's see, since Alice Springs, I've been to the Great Barrier Reef in two different areas, ridden a mechanical bull, learned how to crack a whip and lasso (spelling?), and gone 4x4ing on the world's largest sand island. Oh yeah.
So, to start, I flew from Alice Springs to Cairns where I took a day cruise out to a sand spit and snorkled with the fish and coral and a sea turtle. I had only been snorkling once before so it was still a new experience checking out all the cool wildlife, which was amazingly colorful. The fish were very used to people, so they swam around with me as I looked at them. My favorites were the parrot fish, which were multicolored and ate at the coral the entire time. I could hear them scraping at the coral as they chewed. For whatever reason, that blew my mind. The return trip to land was a sobering experience though, as the sea became rough and I did all I could to keep the buffet lunch down. Many other people were not as lucky.
The enxt day I started my Oz Experience bus trip, which is essentially a Greyhound service with smaller busses and some help with finding accomodation. I've met a lot of cool people on the busses and have had a lot of them on more than one leg of the journey. I just departed from the last of them, a couple of Irish guys that have been hanging out with me for the past week or so. It took me a few days to be able to understand what they were saying and even on our last day together I missed some of what they were saying.
The first day on the bus took me to Magnetic Island, which was the location of the first hostel on my way down the coast. It was OK but not as great as all of the ads I saw for it made it out to be.
Next, I made it to Airlie Beach, the port for the Whitsundays cruise I signed up for. For the next three days, I was on a boat traveling through the Whitsunday Islands. We snorkled in the reefs, stargazed on the boat, and visited Whitsunday Island and Whitehaven Beach, which has to be the setting for every "visit this tropical paradise" commercial ever made. A few times when we were snorkling, one of the ship's crew would throw bread chunks into the water and the fish would just SWARM around us eating it. Once, one of the fish got overzealous and tried to take my ear instead of the bread. That suprised me more than a little bit, but didn't hurt.
After Airlie, we drove to Cattle Station for an overnight stop and I did America proud. I lasted the longest on the mechanical bull ride (41 seconds thank you very much), learned how to crack a whip, lassoed a goat, rode a horse to help muster some sheep, and hit 3 of 5 clay pigeons with a shotgun. It was a pretty fun day.
Next, we made it to Hervey Bay, which is where 4X4 trips to Frasier Island leave. I did a 3 day 2 night trip during which it rained about half of the time, but not in a normal way. It would rain cats and dogs for 5 minutes, then sprinkle for 2, be sunny for 25, and then be absolutely dumping. If it wasn't for the two Irish guys, I would have gone nuts a few times because of other members of our group. I'm glad I went on the trip, though, because the island was scenic, I got to drive the 4X4 a few times through the forest, and we visited Lake McKenzie. Lake McKenzie was easily my favorite part. It is a freshwater lake in the middle of the island that has white sand surrounding it. One of the Irish guys (Patrick O'Gara, how Irish can you get?) and I swam across a good portion of the warm water, which was great. Even saw a few dingos; none of them ate any babies that I saw, but one made off with a guy's sweatshirt.
Now, I'm in Noosa and going on a 3 day kayaking trip that starts in two days before continuing on south. I'm realizing how long I've been gone more and more now and looking forward to seeing everyone when I get back and finding out what you all have been up to. Less than two weeks left. Sounds crazy that I've been gone for two full months already.
Hope everybody's doing well and I'll see you soon.
Andy
Friday, April 4, 2008
Pictures Post
Castle Hill......sigh. This is about 1/3 of Flock Hill's boulders. Beautiful weather coupled with cool rocks and climbing partners = awesome. Side note, this was where they filmed the final battle scene from Chronicles of Narnia. Thought that was cool.
These two lovely people with me are Michal (from Israel) on the right and Elias (from Austria) on the left. Great people and climbing partners, they definitely made my time in Castle Hill more enjoyable than it would have been otherwise. Thanks guys.
Imagine this is rotated. This was possibly the coolest V0 I've ever done.
Sorry this pictures post took so long. I'll try and make it worth the wait.
For some reason this computer doesn't like my USB cord so there are going to be just a few climbing/Castle Hill pics and some Sydney Zoo pics. Maybe if I can, some other NZ pics. I'm trying! Here's a panda-monkey I believe. Very cute.
While I'm waiting for these pics to load, I'll give you a little overview of my last few days.
I made it to Alice Springs! Thank you Qantas. However, once I got here and had my flights all figured out, I found that there is an airlines called Tigers that could have gotten me here and then to Cairns for hundreds of dollars less, like $400. Qantas was not the ONLY way to get here, as I had been led to believe. Oh well. If anybody's going to Australia, save yourself some money.
There's not much going on in Alice Springs. I did go to the reptile exhibit, which is not for anyone that has any dislike of snakes, but I thought it was pretty cool.
Next was a 3-day trip to King's Canyon, Ayer's Rock (Uluru), and one more spot whose name escapes me right now. Despite waking up at 5:30, 4:30, and 4:30 on consecutive days, it was a blast. Cool group in the bus, cool bus driver, and some pretty sweet views. If I can ever figure out these computer problems, I'll load some of the views. The trip was one big self-control fest because we were walking around these amazing looking walks and walls and IT WAS ILLEGAL TO CLIMB THEM! At times, I was physically uncomfortable looking at the red, crimpy, sometimes slabby, sometimes slightly overhanging walls surrounding me. Luckily, the views were more than sufficiently beautiful to make me enjoy myself. And the stars at night! We camped and were so far away from everything on one of the nights that it was like camping at the Buttermilks in Bishop--crystal clear with too many stars to comprehend. The constellations are different down here so that made it even more enjoyable.
So far today I've spent a couple hours on the computer figuring out the rest of my time in Australia, and after some scary minutes, it's going to work out as long as I get on the buses at the right times, which I should be able to do. I have about an hour left in Alice Springs and I want to get to the Flying Doctor's Museum before I head out, so I'd better go. I might end up just hanging out at the pool though, to hang out with my friends for a little bit longer.
Well, hope you liked the pics and the update. I can't wait to get back to free internet.
Talk to you later,
Andy
Thursday, March 27, 2008
On my way to Sydney
Hey,
Today is my last day in New Zealand. I'm in Christchurch right now after a week of camping and climbing in Castle Hill waiting to head to the airport for my 6:45 flight to Sydney.
Castle Hill was a pretty good way to end my time here. I met some friendly people at the campsite that turned out to be climbers and we hung out for the week. Michal and Elias, from Israel and Austria, respectively, made my time at the campsite and climbing areas much more comfortable and enjoyable than they would have been otherwise. With two cool climbing partners, we went out to the boulders every day from Sunday to Thursday. I didn't climb particularly hard while I was there, in part because it took me until Thursday to get the feel of how to climb in the area and also because the rocks were so barren of holds that it seemed like everything was either a V1 (easy) or V8 (very hard). No complaints though. I worked on improving my mental state while climbing and pushed myself in different ways. The scenery there was top notch. Apparently, part of The Chronicles of Narnia was filmed at Flock Hill, which was one of the bouldering areas.
In Sydney, I have about a week before my Oz Experience bus pass starts so I think I'll try to get out to the Blue Mountains for a few days for some sight seeing and climbing. My plan for after that is to head up the east coast to Cairns, stopping along the way. It sounds like Byron Bay, Frasier Island, the Whitsundays, maybe Magnetic Island, and Cairns are the main places to check out. After that, I'll head to Alice Springs for a few days to see that place and then Uluru, or Ayers Rock, which is the big rock in the middle of Australia, before flying to Sydney and then home to SFO.
Leaving NZ feels like my trip is about over, but I still have over a month to go. Looking forward to the rest of my trip and also to seeing everybody when I get back.
Talk to you soon,
Andy
Today is my last day in New Zealand. I'm in Christchurch right now after a week of camping and climbing in Castle Hill waiting to head to the airport for my 6:45 flight to Sydney.
Castle Hill was a pretty good way to end my time here. I met some friendly people at the campsite that turned out to be climbers and we hung out for the week. Michal and Elias, from Israel and Austria, respectively, made my time at the campsite and climbing areas much more comfortable and enjoyable than they would have been otherwise. With two cool climbing partners, we went out to the boulders every day from Sunday to Thursday. I didn't climb particularly hard while I was there, in part because it took me until Thursday to get the feel of how to climb in the area and also because the rocks were so barren of holds that it seemed like everything was either a V1 (easy) or V8 (very hard). No complaints though. I worked on improving my mental state while climbing and pushed myself in different ways. The scenery there was top notch. Apparently, part of The Chronicles of Narnia was filmed at Flock Hill, which was one of the bouldering areas.
In Sydney, I have about a week before my Oz Experience bus pass starts so I think I'll try to get out to the Blue Mountains for a few days for some sight seeing and climbing. My plan for after that is to head up the east coast to Cairns, stopping along the way. It sounds like Byron Bay, Frasier Island, the Whitsundays, maybe Magnetic Island, and Cairns are the main places to check out. After that, I'll head to Alice Springs for a few days to see that place and then Uluru, or Ayers Rock, which is the big rock in the middle of Australia, before flying to Sydney and then home to SFO.
Leaving NZ feels like my trip is about over, but I still have over a month to go. Looking forward to the rest of my trip and also to seeing everybody when I get back.
Talk to you soon,
Andy
Friday, March 21, 2008
Christchurch HO!!!
Hey everybody (or you, if there's just one person reading this),
I'm in Christchurch right now, which is on the east side of the south island, right about in the middle. Since I last wrote, I've gone down the west coast down to Queenstown and then back up the middle/east side to get to where I am now. On the way down to Queenstown, Sean and I stopped at a couple cities, Wanaka and Franz Joseph.
Our first stop after Greymouth was Franz Joseph, which is the home of a GLACIER!! In the JUNGLE!! It doesn't look all that great in the rain though, which was how we saw it on that first afternoon. I did get to pick up a big block of ice though, that was cool. Oh, another thing, and I can show everyone (you) all pictures of this when I get back, glacier water is teal, not the usual blue that I associate with streams and rivers. We passed by a bunch of rivers fed by the glaciers in the area and they looked like someone dyed them with food coloring. Almost like the Sharks' old uniforms' color. Amazing. At the hostel, Sean and I met three cool English guys that we would end up seeing again in Wanaka and Queenstown, which happens when there is one road to take and the city centers might be 5 streets wide. After a nice night of hanging out, listening to stories about English stuff, and watching some TV (Back to the Future 2, thank you very much. GREAT SCOTT!!) we fell asleep to silence as the rain had finally stopped.
Luckily, the next morning was clear as a bell and Sean and I saw both the Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers. Actually being able to see them and see how large they were was much more satisfying that using my imagination. Soon enough though, the clouds started coming in so we hightailed it for Wanaka. The weather down here will go from rainy to sunny to rainy 5 times a day sometimes.
Wanaka was awesome. It had a beautiful lake and small beach that was the perfect scenery for us to unwind. It also had Puzzleworld. Very awesome. All kinds of illusions and 3D pictures. Now after hearing about that, I bet you can't believe that there was something even cooler there, but there was. Possibly the coolest part was the huge maze they had outside. There were a few acres covered by 6 foot tall walls that made up pathways--it felt like being in one of those mazes they have on kids' menus at restaurants. The goal was to get to the four corners in a certain order and took about 1 1/2 hours. It was worth the effort.
After Wanaka, we made it to Queenstown, which reminded me of Mt. Shasta, but with the lake right in town and more mountains for skiing. As I said earlier, we ran into the English guys there along with Rabea, who if I haven't mentioned her yet, is a German tourist that Sean and I met on the Interislander ship. Small country. Queenstown is the adventure capitol of the country with: bungee jumping, paragliding, parasailing, THE LUGE (which I missed out on this time, dang), mountain biking and tons of other stuff. It also has Fergburgers, which are hamburgers that are simply great. Aioli sauce, big patties, good bread. Yeah, I had a couple and they were good. The highlight of my stay in Queenstown, though, was the mountain biking. There was an area about 7 miles from town, inventively named 7 Mile Track, that had all sorts of burms, jumps, and wooden bridges. It was like something out of the Banff Mountain Film Festival. Lucky for me, there was a mountain bike club meeting that day and for $10 I got lunch and some instruction on how to get better at biking. Now, I'd like to say that by the end of the day I was tearing through the burms and jumping everything, but I can't. I was getting better though and now I know how to keep improving at home.
Funny story.
I went to Milford Sound for a day, which was quite excellent and incredible, and met a Scottish girl on the boat that took us out into the sounds. We made plans to make some dinner that night at her hostel. I ran to the store after the bus dropped me off and headed for her building (building A). She wasn't there. Noone knew who I was talking about. It seemed like I was out of luck in finding her, so I asked if I could just cook my chicken there because everyone seemed pretty cool and friendly. They said sure. As it turned out, I hung out with them for the rest of the night (St. Patrick's day) and all day the next day. Lucky me how that turned out.
After that, I took an 8 hour bus ride to Christchurch, met up with Rabea (again) and a friend of hers who took me to The Cave, a local climbing wall that completely shut me down. It was shaped like a quarter circle it was so overhanging. I ended up staying the night at the friend's house and getting travel plans set up the next day. My plan for this week is to make it out to Castle Hill, which is a bouldering area about an hour from here, and climb for a while. This trip has been great, but I need some physical activity and climbing.
Tomorrow might be a good climbing day.
See ya later.
Andy
I'm in Christchurch right now, which is on the east side of the south island, right about in the middle. Since I last wrote, I've gone down the west coast down to Queenstown and then back up the middle/east side to get to where I am now. On the way down to Queenstown, Sean and I stopped at a couple cities, Wanaka and Franz Joseph.
Our first stop after Greymouth was Franz Joseph, which is the home of a GLACIER!! In the JUNGLE!! It doesn't look all that great in the rain though, which was how we saw it on that first afternoon. I did get to pick up a big block of ice though, that was cool. Oh, another thing, and I can show everyone (you) all pictures of this when I get back, glacier water is teal, not the usual blue that I associate with streams and rivers. We passed by a bunch of rivers fed by the glaciers in the area and they looked like someone dyed them with food coloring. Almost like the Sharks' old uniforms' color. Amazing. At the hostel, Sean and I met three cool English guys that we would end up seeing again in Wanaka and Queenstown, which happens when there is one road to take and the city centers might be 5 streets wide. After a nice night of hanging out, listening to stories about English stuff, and watching some TV (Back to the Future 2, thank you very much. GREAT SCOTT!!) we fell asleep to silence as the rain had finally stopped.
Luckily, the next morning was clear as a bell and Sean and I saw both the Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers. Actually being able to see them and see how large they were was much more satisfying that using my imagination. Soon enough though, the clouds started coming in so we hightailed it for Wanaka. The weather down here will go from rainy to sunny to rainy 5 times a day sometimes.
Wanaka was awesome. It had a beautiful lake and small beach that was the perfect scenery for us to unwind. It also had Puzzleworld. Very awesome. All kinds of illusions and 3D pictures. Now after hearing about that, I bet you can't believe that there was something even cooler there, but there was. Possibly the coolest part was the huge maze they had outside. There were a few acres covered by 6 foot tall walls that made up pathways--it felt like being in one of those mazes they have on kids' menus at restaurants. The goal was to get to the four corners in a certain order and took about 1 1/2 hours. It was worth the effort.
After Wanaka, we made it to Queenstown, which reminded me of Mt. Shasta, but with the lake right in town and more mountains for skiing. As I said earlier, we ran into the English guys there along with Rabea, who if I haven't mentioned her yet, is a German tourist that Sean and I met on the Interislander ship. Small country. Queenstown is the adventure capitol of the country with: bungee jumping, paragliding, parasailing, THE LUGE (which I missed out on this time, dang), mountain biking and tons of other stuff. It also has Fergburgers, which are hamburgers that are simply great. Aioli sauce, big patties, good bread. Yeah, I had a couple and they were good. The highlight of my stay in Queenstown, though, was the mountain biking. There was an area about 7 miles from town, inventively named 7 Mile Track, that had all sorts of burms, jumps, and wooden bridges. It was like something out of the Banff Mountain Film Festival. Lucky for me, there was a mountain bike club meeting that day and for $10 I got lunch and some instruction on how to get better at biking. Now, I'd like to say that by the end of the day I was tearing through the burms and jumping everything, but I can't. I was getting better though and now I know how to keep improving at home.
Funny story.
I went to Milford Sound for a day, which was quite excellent and incredible, and met a Scottish girl on the boat that took us out into the sounds. We made plans to make some dinner that night at her hostel. I ran to the store after the bus dropped me off and headed for her building (building A). She wasn't there. Noone knew who I was talking about. It seemed like I was out of luck in finding her, so I asked if I could just cook my chicken there because everyone seemed pretty cool and friendly. They said sure. As it turned out, I hung out with them for the rest of the night (St. Patrick's day) and all day the next day. Lucky me how that turned out.
After that, I took an 8 hour bus ride to Christchurch, met up with Rabea (again) and a friend of hers who took me to The Cave, a local climbing wall that completely shut me down. It was shaped like a quarter circle it was so overhanging. I ended up staying the night at the friend's house and getting travel plans set up the next day. My plan for this week is to make it out to Castle Hill, which is a bouldering area about an hour from here, and climb for a while. This trip has been great, but I need some physical activity and climbing.
Tomorrow might be a good climbing day.
See ya later.
Andy
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